Saturday 12 April 2014

Asking questions

Herewith my notes when I was learning how to design question:

Classification questions

  • Name, sex, age, status, etc = basis for analyzing associations between variables
  • Add in “it will help us in further analysis if you would tell us a little about yourself”.
  • Don’t get info that is not needed, e.g. exact age (use range instead); salary (use job grade instead).

Question contents (validity)

Questionnaire needs to cover the research issues that have been specified.
  1.       I must be clear about the information required and encode this accurately into a question.
  2.        The respondent must interpret the question in a way I intended.
  3.        The respondent must construct an answer that contains information that I have requested
  4.        I must interpret the answer as the respondent had intended it to be interpreted.

Questions to ask when designing questions:

  1.           Is the question necessary? Just how will it be useful?
  2.           Are several questions needed on the subject matter of this question?
  3.           Do respondents have the information necessary to answer the question?
  4.           Does the question need to be more concrete, specific and closely related to the respondent’s personal exposure?
  5.           Is the question content sufficiently general and free from spurious concreteness and specificity?
  6.           Is the question content biased and loaded in one direction, without accompanying questions to balance the emphasis?
  7.           Will the respondents give the information that is asked for?

Drafting the answer

  • Decide on how you want people to respond and stick with it. Tick (/), underline, circle. DON’T mix.



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